STORY

Posh & Becks, Piggy & Kermit, Vic & Cam.  A decade of friendship later, as Cam’s metamorphized from closeted wallflower to pantomime dame, Vic’s remained his safe space. But since she’s got engaged, Cam’s felt his world shifting beneath his feet. Vic assures him all is fine, but as Cam reluctantly arrives for her ‘low-key’, (eye-wateringly expensive) hen-do, he meets The – practically identical – Hens, led by formidable Maid of Honour Margot. Soon he is convinced this weekend is far more than organised fun, matching PJ’s and Abba karaoke... This is the battle for Vic’s soul, and Cam won’t go down without a fight.

Half hen-party satire, half love letter to gay guy and straight gal friendship, this is a horror about being made to feel like you’re living life the wrong way, with a healthy dollop of heart, humour and gore.
 

TONE

Hen House is a hilarious psychological horror, a high-stakes fever dream wrapped in prosecco with the girlies, penis straws, ABBA karaoke and just a pinch of existential dread. It’s a bubbling pot of nuclear family pressures, love, loss, and growth; a chaotic meditation on friendship and fear wrapped in feather boas and matching pyjamas. The film blends the suspenseful unease of Get Out, the sickly-sweet satire of The Stepford Wives, the competitive bite of Bring It On, and the farcical absurdity of Scary Movie - but with actual emotional stakes. Because yes, we want to laugh at the ridiculousness of it all, but we also care.

We care about Cam and Vic, our modern-day Frodo and Samwise, caught in a love story disguised as a hen do from hell because we are letting go of something that once felt like home and the unknown is bubbling right in front of us.  

At its core, Hen House is funny, sharp, and terrifyingly relatable - because nothing is scarier than free-falling into your 30s, scrolling through your feed, and realising half your mates are posting potty training diaries while you’re still trying to decide if “having a plant” counts as stability.

TEXTURE & COLOUR

A clash of aesthetics: sickly sweet meets deeply unsettling. The grade should reflect that duality — the bright, modern pop of a Sex Education-style world colliding with the creeping dread of supernatural horror later on in the short.

We lead with hyper-feminine: glossy pinks, soft golds, shimmering pastels. Think the curated perfection of an influencer’s story highlight reel only something’s slightly… OFFF. Is Margot just being a cow or is there something scarier lurking?

But when the horror hits, we drop into grainy, flickering, almost too real. Faces at the window, flickers through a keyhole, a hen party gone full cult initiation. We will keep these moments tense but ridiculous, CAM in his hen do PJs starring through the gap in the door at a camp ritual. Cam will be terrified and we feel that fear but we dress it camp, crash and cunty  culty. The push and pull between Gaga-chic sparkle and grimy dread keeps the audience laughing one second and clenching the next.

The country manor is its own monster. Vast, elegant, swallowing Cam whole. Think Heathers the Musical not the film — it needs to be more satirical - everything polished, perfect, and humming with something sinister beneath the sequins.  We play with scale and perspective—Cam dwarfed by its grandness, lost in its winding corridors, feeling trapped, disoriented, swallowed whole. Think Severance—but instead of sterile, bright minimalism, we are engulfed in grandiosity. The decor should ooze discomfort - taxidermy on the walls, and I’d love to place a taxidermy hen somewhere, a nod to the film’s themes.

Director - Yvonne Lawlor

Yvonne is a Director based in Manchester. After leaving drama school, she went into casting for HETV and Film and over the past eight years she has worked with some incredible directors on projects, including I MAY DESTROY YOU, SHARDLAKE, THE DOLL FACTORY, and many more. It gave Yvonne a detailed and clear understanding of the industry and it wasn’t long before she got the itch to tell stories of my own. Her debut short film STELLA, premiered at BFI Flare 2024 festival and screened at BIFA, Oscar and BAFTA-accredited festivals worldwide. She shadowed Director Azhur Saleem on ITV’s AFTER THE FLOOD, she gained valuable on set experience on such a large scale project and directed the “DBSAC” music video for queer punk rock band THE OOZES, “Champagne Time” for up-and-coming Austrian rapper NENDA, plus an episode of the award-winning web series BEIGE by Olivia D’Lima. Yvonne is so excited to be moving onto her next project HEN HOUSE, with a stellar team behind it she to create a visual feast with depth, emotion and a whole load of laughs. Any donation big or small would give us the leg up to make this script the master piece it deserves to be.

Writer - Adam James

Adam is a queer writer from the West Midlands, now based in Manchester. Most recently, he’s graduate of Channel 4’s 4screenwriting course, Soho Writers Lab and was writer on attachment with theatre company Box of Tricks and is developing original drama and comedy television projects, having worked with Mam Tor Productions (BBC’s Chloe & Richard Gadd’s Halfman) and Riff Raff Entertainment (Netflix’s Black Rabbit. His debut play Neverland was performed at Home Theatre in 2023.

Previously, Adam has been part of Soho Theatre's Writer's Lab, longlisted for BFI Network & BAFTA mentoring, shortlisted for BBC Northern Voices and has been a panellist at New Writing North, Manchester and Leeds Film Festivals and London Comedy Film Festival. He's has short plays performed in scratch nights across Manchester and London, including Southwark Playhouse in 2019. 

Outside of writing, Adam is a development script editor Wall To Wall North (Waterloo Road, New Tricks), developing projects for top global streamers and UK broadcasters. He previously held positions SISTER (Black Doves, This Is Going To Hurt, Chernobyl).

Hen House will mark Adam’s first production credit as a writer and be an opportunity to gain vital on-set, production experience that will help influence and enhance his writing
moving forward. Having previously only written for TV and Theatre, this opportunity will help expand his professional network into film and lay the groundwork to write further short films and feature films in the future.

Producer - Rhiannon Jones

Rhiannon is a producer from Birmingham, currently based in London. Rhiannon was most recently Associate Producer on THE NIGHT MANAGER S2 (BBC & Amazon) and Assistant Producer on KAOS (Netflix).

Rhiannon started her career in Post Production, working for 5 years in a audio post house and earning credits on major TV dramas like HUMANS and MR SELFRIDGE and British Films like SUPERSONIC and DAVID BRENT: LIFE ON THE ROAD. Rhiannon then left post to join SISTER, where she worked closely with executive producers on projects including, CHERNOBYL, GIRI/HAJI and LANDSCAPERS.

Rhiannon's passion lies in telling untold stories, particularly ones that highlight under represented people and the working classes that help us shine a light on the world we live in and help us better understand each other. Even better, if we can find the humour in there too!